17 members of gang charged after turf battle

17 members of gang charged after turf battle

From NYC Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office

Bridget G. Brennan, the city’s special narcotics prosecutor and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly on Wednesday announced the indictment of 17 members of a violent drug dealing gang, known as “Dub City,” that has been engaged in a violent turf battle with two rival groups.

The feud was triggered by the shooting death of a Dub City member in April 2011, according to police. Since that time, there have been 14 retaliatory shootings, which are included in the indictment as part of four conspiracy charges, along with three assaults, numerous robberies and drug and gun sales.

The group made extensive use of social media, such as Facebook and YouTube, and communicated with one another about their crimes in thousands of text messages.

In addition to the conspiracy charges, members of Dub City also face 31 substantive charges for weapon sales and possession and 5 substantive charges for selling and possessing narcotics, police say.

During the 16-month investigation, police made a total of 20 arrests and seized 10 guns. Yesterday officers with the NYPD’s 44th Precinct, and the Field Intelligence Sergeant conducted 10 court-authorized searches and arrested 10 individuals, including eight alleged members of the Dub City gang.

Police seized a firearm, heroin, crack-cocaine, drug paraphernalia and ammunition during the searches. Another nine guns were seized during the investigation, according to the indictment.

Seven of the 20 defendants are currently being prosecuted by the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, and two juveniles face charges in Bronx Family Court.

The criminal street gang Dub City operates in the area between East 175th Street and East 177th Street from Walton Avenue to Jerome Avenue in the Bronx. A building on Walton Avenue where Baheem Teichera, one of the gang’s leaders, lives served as a central gang hangout and drug-trafficking location, according to police.

During the investigation, members of Dub City engaged in violent confrontations with two rival street gangs in the vicinity of their neighborhood. Much of the violence stemmed from the shooting death of Dub City member Dontae Murray, aka “Tay,” in April 2011, according to authorities.

Text messages and recorded phone conversations show the Dub City members used a distinctive system of code words to communicate with one another, according to police. Many of the text message communications revolved around firearms, referred to as “grips,” “slammers” and “jackies.” “Situation,” “jacking” and “clapping” meant shootings.

In other coded language, the phrases “come up” or “bum up” referred to committing robberies, and “yankee” meant narcotics, the indictment charges.

In one case, NYPD detectives obtained surveillance video from a bodega that captured images of two Dub City members, Silva and Wyse Agblevor, slashing a rival on March 18, 2012, say police.

The 35-count indictment unsealed today charges the defendants with conspiracy, assault, menacing, reckless endangerment, criminal sale of a firearm, criminal possession of a weapon and other related charges.